May 2025

This Dad Rocks!

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Academic Standards

Reading Objective:

Students will identify ways a bald eagle adoptive dad cared for an eaglet.

Next Generation Science Standards:

K-LS1-1: What plants and animals need to survive

1-LS1-1: How animals use external parts to survive

1-LS1-2: Behavior that helps offspring survive

1-LS1-3: How animal offspring are both like and unlike their parents.

Vocabulary:

eaglet, squawked

Use your Science Spin to find the best answer to each question.

1. At first, what did Murphy sit on in the nest?

a rock

2. What came to the bird home needing help?

an eaglet

3.  What did Murphy do for the baby eagle?

Murphy acted like its dad.

4.  Draw Murphy taking care of the eaglet.

© Go online to print or project the Reading Checkpoint.

  • Murphy’s left wing broke when he was younger. He is healthy and healed now, but he can’t fly.
  • If a bird can learn to fly and return to the wild, the folks at the World Bird Sanctuary won’t give it a name. If the bird starts to become part of the human world, it won’t survive in the wild later.

Materials: Markers or crayons, scissors (optional), copies of the skill sheet.

Overview: A screen for watching an eagle parent feed its babies, pencils, markers, copies of the skill sheet

Directions:

  1. Before the lesson starts, go online to find our video clip of an eagle parent feeding its babies. (Remember: Science Spin’s access code is unique to this magazine. Find it on the printed Teacher’s Guide.) Or, find a bald eagle cam online. Try explore.org for animal cams.
  2. Pass out copies of the skill sheet. Remind kids that they read about a bald eagle that cared for an eaglet.
  3. Play the short video. At first, let kids just soak it in. Then ask questions: Does this eagle parent have eaglets, or babies? How many? How do they look similar to and different from their parent?
  4. What is the eagle parent doing for its babies? Why can’t the babies do that for themselves?
  5. What kind of home do these eagles have? What makes it safe and not safe for babies? What else is interesting here?
  6. Students can record their observations on the skill sheet.